Dozens arrested and hundreds of guns taken off streets of Fort Lauderdale

Operation Smoking Gun targeted weapons and gangs in Broward County

Weapons such as these were confiscated as a result of "Operation Smoking… (Rafael Olmeda, Sun Sentinel )

February 19, 2010|By Rafael A. Olmeda, Sun Sentinel

FORT LAUDERDALE — Dozens of criminals have been arrested and charged with a slew of offenses related to drugs, illegal gun dealing and identity theft, law enforcement officials said Friday.

The arrests and seizures over the past several days were all part of Operation Smoking Gun, a concerted effort by local and federal law enforcement agencies to target gang activity in Fort Lauderdale during the past year.

Undercover agents recovered 312 firearms ranging from small handguns to military-style weapons, including a machine gun and three sawed-off shotguns, said U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Sloman.

Also seized were: more than 13,000 pills of oxycodone, Percocet, Endocet, Vicodin, morphine and Ecstasy; 3 kilograms of powder cocaine, 1.5 kilograms of crack cocaine and 5.1 kilograms of marijuana; $5,100 in counterfeit money; and 61 sets of stolen identification, along with stolen data from another 300 victims.

"I think it speaks to the nature and evolution of crime today," Sloman said of gang members turning to identity theft in addition to the street crimes with which they are normally associated. It's easier and less dangerous to steal credit card and identity information than it is to rob a convenience store, he said.

As Operation Smoking Gun came to a close this week, law enforcement officials moved in on the criminal suspects they'd been tracking, unsealing 27 federal indictments and filing state charges against an additional 63 suspects, officials said. Most of the arrests related to the illegal sale of weapons and drugs.

Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Frank Adderly credited the operation with helping lower the city's violent crime rate and homicide rate in 2009, while Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti highlighted the role of his agency's Crime Lab in test firing and cataloguing the information for each gun to help determine whether it had been used in prior crimes. The Crime Lab is not funded in next year's county budget, he said.

Hugo Barrera, special agent in charge of the Miami Field Division of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said Smoking Gun helped dismantle two international gun-trafficking operations sending weapons to the Bahamas and Central America.